I was going to post how the noise stopped and all was right in the world again. Alas, 2 minutes into my drive home, I knew something was wrong.

Gears just weren't working right. I popped into 2nd, and it would rev up to like 4K then fall again after a second or two. Then, I had to know. I threw it into 6th, going like 30 mph and it would still rev up to 4,000. It was then I knew. Well, that and the new smell of burned popcorn.

I hated you at first, but I grew to love you. After I got the hang of you, you took off like a rocket. And those two moments where a small-dicked douhebag and then some idiotic soccer mom (both in ginormous SUVs) nearly took us out, well, we shared something.

I'll miss you, Mini. We'll always have last week.

Memories... like the corners of my mindMisty water-colored memories, of the way we wereScattered pictures, of the smiles we left behindSmiles we gave to one another, for the way we wereCan it be that it was all so simple then?Or has time rewritten every line?If we had the chance to do it all again,Tell me: Would we?

Could we?

R.I.P. Mini 2008-2008

GOD I MISS THAT CAR.

Okay, I will say I bonded with that car. I don't know if it was the primitive shifting technology that brought us closer, the way I could change the interior LED accent colors, or if the Mini is just that awesome.

After everyone looking at me as if I were O.J. at the car rental place, I'm now in a Hybrid Civic that must have the same transmission that stupid Rogue had (read: no gears at all). It looks awesome, and I can change radio stations again, but it has no pickup and just revs forever. My car is supposed to be ready tomorrow (file this under "I'll believe it when I see it").

that doesn't sound like a blown out transmission, sounds like your clutch just went belly up - those aren't horribly intrusive and pretty common.

i've never actually driven a mini...they're fantastically popular up here for obvious reasons...are you getting it fixed or wha?

the hybrid civic w/o gears...i think the new civic hybrids have the new fangled CVT - continuously variable transmission - yeah no pick up and go...but what freaks me out the most about them is the lack of shifting. you can floor it and keep it floored and just get freaked out by watching the rpms just kinda float there at like 3500ish.

Yeah, pretty much all hybrids have CVT's nowadays. The Honda Insight, Honda's original hybrid, originally came with only a manual, but they eventually offered a CVT. And, yes, CVT's do have a tendency to just keep the engine at the torque peak until the car eventually lollygags up to speed. Unsatisfying.

My bf has a hybrid civic. It's not a bad car once you get over the lack of acceleration power. The CVT was a little weird at first, but I quickly decided that I liked it much better than the CVT's that try to "fake" gears. I mean, that's not the way that they are intended to operate, it doesn't really add anything, so why bother? There's something oddly blissful about the smooth acceleration. I still rank it DSG, Manual, CVT, every other crappy automatic.

DSG still wigs me out a little bit...i test drove something a while back with it..i really want to say it was an audi something...or a bmw something. just so surreal how quickly it shifts. it was a paddle shifter, come to think of it. i didn't like it because i like the feeling of throwing a shifter around when driving.

i love the visual this creates...you in a mini with a paddle shifter screaming down the 405 (obviously this would have to happen at 4am for anyone to go screaming down the 405) chucking cars outta the way by ramming SUVs and such.